Hardmoors Night Race 09/01/16

I had fancied the Hardmoors training weekend this weekend, but the time taken up and the cost had me umming ans ahing, so when I saw you could do the race without doing the weekend for £6 my mind was made up. I must admit I was nervous,but I have entered the Hardmoors 55 in March and it's likely that I will have to run for quite a while in the dark. 

Fortunately the night race course was part of a route that I recced with a group of other runners a couple of weeks ago, so I had an idea of what lay ahead in the 6.8 mile race.   

Clay Bank - Wainstones - Cold Moor - Cringle Moor - Lord Stones - Cringle Moor - Cold Moor - Wainstones - Clay Bank

...

The race started a Clay Bank car park, 2 miles south of Great Broughton.

 I ran it with my husband Billy We arrived in rain as the forecast had said, the carpark was quite full so the weather was not putting anyone off. We got out of the car to go register at a gazebo a little way down the road, it was windy and cold as well as raining. We registered and went to wait in the car. A short while leather we walked back to the gazebo for race briefing. If wax hard to hear in the rain, but basically the rout would have some glow sticks as markers and marshals, run to Lordstones give your number, run back. 5-4-3-2-1 and we were off, up a slightly different route to the one we had run a couple of weeks ago, thus was a muddy track up through some woods where the mud was often at least ankle deep and was littered in fallen fir branches. At the top a marshal sent us through a gate onto the paved Cleveland Way. From here as we turned towards the hill called Wainstones, all you could see were torches in a long line winding their way up the hillside, wish I could have got a pic. This was a tough climb and you could only go as fast as the person ahead until the path levelled a bit. The rain hammered down and now the wind was picking up from the left, not nice as the drops were on the right. Billy had got ahead on the climb but waited for me, we ran through the rocks where the person ahead went down a biggish drop," I don't remember this" I said, we looked around and there was a better way down. It was tough going now as we were descending on wet rocky uneven steps, I was slow at this. It was a relief to get down onto a grassy muddy section, down then across a really muddy wet bit and back onto paving as the next incline up to started. This hill felt steeper to get up, the runners were now strung out and even though I couldn't keep up with Billy I was now passing others. It was foggy up here so that reduced my vision a bit, as soon we were heading back down again, out of the fog but the wind was increasing. The views were stunning though, a string of head torches ahead and the lights of civilisation to the right, beautiful but a shocking glimpse of light pollution. We worked our way off the hill then a run down the grass, through a gate and more mud as we headed for the third hill. We had just set off up as the leader ran down past me, amazing, you would not think it was dark windy and wet the way he ran. A little time later the second person. From then on periodically there were runners running towards us, I stood aside to let them past. The descent felt long this time but we were soon running through the mud, through Lordstones campsite. It was going ok, there were lots of people ahead, but I'm sure we were not too near the back either.

3 down, 3 to go

After giving our numbers we turned to run back, "Oh my goodness" the wind was so much stronger this way, coming from the right and ahead it was a real battle at times on the way back, the rain was stinging and felt like hail. 

I struggled in the gusts, I find it difficult to get a breath with my asthma in a head wind, it was like it was trying to prevent us getting back. Billy went ahead for a bit, I put my head down, literally, and slogged it out, catching people up an he way up and across the tops but losing places to them on the way down. For a while I could see Billy ahead but then lost sight of him, after a while, I worried that he had gone wrong, there was no sign of him. At the bottom of the fifth climb he waited, phew that was a relief, we took the last climb back up Wainstones together. On the top the wind was scary it was blowing so hard, but we were nearly there, on the descent we were passed by the people we had passed on the climb and on the top, but we were soon down, back at the marshal and back down the muddy track to the gazebo to let them know we were back and have a few sweets before wandering back to the car to get out of our soaking clothes and have hot chocolate before driving home.

The route was actually 7.6 miles with 3077 ft of ascent and the weather was bleaker on the tops than the Stokesly forcast 

Would I do it again? YES, but I'd be hoping for better weather.

Thanks to the marshals standing out in that dreadful weather for hours.

The equipment I used was 

Montane Minimus Smock. Worked well, should have put the hood up though.

Petal Nao Headtorch, worked great, great spread of light kept its power only used on bar in 2/12 hours

Salomon S lab 12 vest, new, first wear, didn't know I had it on, lightweight and comfortable.

Brooks Cascadia Shoes. New, only worn for a couple of miles in advance. Great grip in mud and on the wet grass, struggled on wet slippy rocks, but improved as the run went on. Lightweight and comfortable.